Cajun Vacation: Day 3 Avery Island and Gator Cove


Today, we had a bit of a slow start.  After breakfast at the hotel, we headed south to Avery Island.  For Rick, we were doing a tour of the Tabasco plant.  He so loves this stuff.  I do believe he puts it on just about everything he eats.  Rich had been in the area almost 30 years ago while working for Motorola on a Louisiana system.  He highly recommended the Jungle Gardens on the island.  So we were off to tour and wonder around.

I stopped in the New Iberia tourist information office once we got off the highway.  The man there gave me a lot of ideas for things to see and do.  He said that that the azaleas were in full bloom so the gardens would be full of blooms.   I love azaleas!

Down the road, we got into the swamps and crossed the bridge into Avery Island.  The brick buildings were ageless and had been standing for quite a while.  Walking up to the ticket office, I noticed the Tabasco sign and had to have a picture of the guys in front of it.  It was perfect.

In the museum, we went through all of the exhibits that told us the story of Tabasco.  Pretty amazing that one guy started something because he lost his job.  He knew pepper sauce and figured why not.  It has been a family business for many generations now.  The tour goes from the nursery where you see the different types of pepper plants, to the cooperage, to the mashing, to mixing and fermenting, and then on to bottling.  The line we watched was bottling garlic Tabasco for the Chinese market.  They are in just about every country of the world!

After the tour, we stopped by the Country Store to see what souvenirs were available.  Rick picked up a shirt and some sauce he couldn’t normally get.  We sampled the different sauces and some of the products made at the plant.  I most certainly don’t have the taste buds for the hot stuff.

We ambled down the road to the Jungle Gardens.  Rick ran in for a map and then we made our way down to the first stop.  This is bayou country back here.  With that, we came looking for gators.  Most of the ones we could spot were small.  We got a lot of great pictures.

The road led around through the Southern oaks hanging with Spanish moss and blooming trees and bushes.  We walked several trails.  There was a lot of timber bamboo growing in groves in the garden.  The estate uses it for railing and for bedding on the The Rookery for the storks.  We saw one of the oldest know trees in the state.  The Survey Tree was a large, overgrown tree back in 1810 when one of the settlers used it as a marker.  It was a rather larger and pretty heavily damaged tree as we looked it over.

One trail led back to a Buddha set up in a temple on a small rise.  The plaque says that the statue was pillaged from a temple in China when the Chinese Empire fell.  The rebel general scavenged the statue and sent it to New York to be sold.  A friend of the McIlhenney family told them about it and it was purchased and brought to Louisiana where it has resided since.  I’m surprised that it was not required to be returned to China.  It is beautiful and the hilltop is peaceful over the lagoon.

We took lots of pictures and walked all of the trails that we could.  We had plans to go to Gator Cove for lunch.  Rich wanted to do a crawfish boil.  Unfortunately, the Cove was closed and wouldn’t be open until 5:00.  Dinner it is then.

We stopped by the Blue Dog Café and had another round of seafood.  Rich had the crawfish enchilada.  Rick went for the crawfish pasta and I had gulf shrimp with more of the corn macque chow.  There was dirty rice with boudin sausage.  I love that stuff.  The flavor is so wonderful.

After our late lunch, we went over to the Acadian Village.  This is a collection of homes and businesses from around the area with ties to the Acadian people.  The lady in the country store was wonderful to talk to.  Her father grew up with the Acadian version of French.  She said her mother was Cajun (non-Acadian) and learned to speak French to communicate within the family group.

The houses all have history and each one is devoted to some aspect of life within the Acadian settlement.  There were lots of things to see and look at.  The village is arranged around its own version of a bayou.  It was nice to walk through and take our time.  Stopping into the offices, Rick and I went through the local art gallery.  I even had a conversation with one of the artists as she volunteers there.  She was so interesting.  From her speech and word choices, she was definitely Acadian.  It was bonus to talk with her about her art.

One the way back to the hotel to rest, Rich decided he had to have some of the local coffee to take back home.  I haven’t had any yet, that I know of, to judge if it was worth the trip to find some or not.  We passed a grocery and stopped in to see what we could find.  There were a couple of types in whole bean.  This was good enough for Rich.

Now we are back at the hotel resting up and waiting for dinner time.  Then it’s off to Gator Cove to enjoy a crawfish boil and probably get some of the BBQ to go with it.  More to come later.

Okay, I’m back.  The road outside of our hotel turned out to be a main road for everyone in Lafayette.  We turned the other direction and hoped that the Navi would come up with better directions.  It did.  We took a left and followed the road to the next road going east.  This road turned out to be directly across from the frontage road where I needed to go for the restaurant.  That was cool.

We drove down the hill and around the back of the building.  Hurrahs went up as the Open light was lit.  Time to get some crawfish boil.  I did stop the guys from going right in.  We just had to take a picture with the front doors.  The gators and crawfish were so cool.

Inside, the young lady at the podium had a great accent.  We heard y’all a bunch of times.  We got seated and ordered drinks.  When she returned we had figured out the order we wanted.  Then she threw a wrench into the order.  Do you want 3 lbs. or 5 lbs.?  That was the question.  Rich made the decision for 5 lbs of crawfish, some sausage, corn, and potatoes.  We ordered boudin and pepperjack cheese as an appetizer.

The appetizer came as eggrolls filled with goodness.  I so love boudin sausage.  It has such flavor without a lot of burn.  I do see that it is different from each person that you order it from.  Our waitress returned soon with a big black container.  When the lid came off, it was full of red bugs topped with corn and potatoes.  This was the moment for pictures before we delved in and learned the skills to twist the tail and pull out the sweet meat.

I had our waitress show me on one of the bugs first and show me how it was expertly done.  She deftly twisted the tail.  It came away easily with the outer shell attached.  Peeling off the shell, the tail was exposed and ready for dipping.  The dip was more like Russian dressing, but you could add hot sauce or horseradish.

We began digging into dinner.  Pretty soon, 5 lbs of bugs was down to just a couple.  Rick and I had reached the end.  I still wanted dessert.  Rich took care of the leftovers.  At the back of the room where sinks where you could scrub up and remove the seasoning.  It didn’t really burn the skin much, but the lips were on fire a bit.  It was highly recommended that the guys wash up good before going to the bathroom.

By the time I got back to the table, the dessert tray had come and gone.  I heard there were great things on it though.  The waitress came back with the tray and it was scrumptious.  I ordered the strawberry and dark chocolate cheesecake.  Rich got the bread pudding with whiskey sauce.  Rick got the Butterfinger cake.  Yes, it was all heavenly.

Time to pay the bill.  I just had to get t-shirts from the place first.  The guys got gray shirts that say Got Crawfish on the front with the Gator Cove logo on the back.  They were really nice.  We talked to the owner for a bit.  I guess all of the good seafood was being shipped to the Northeast since Sandy to meet demands and good money.  That was sad.  I guess they had seen better days with all of the restaurants that had opened in the area.  This was type of place that I really look for when I go to an area.  It has atmosphere and great food.

Well, dinner was over and we were so full.  It was time to head back to the hotel and settle in.  I can finish this blog and post it along with pictures from the day.  It was definitely a great day on vacation.  Tomorrow, we head to New Orleans for a couple of days.

Rich and Rick outside of the Tabasco Factory
Rich and Rick outside of the Tabasco Factory

Barrels of pepper pulp ready for formenting

Vats of pepper pulp and vinegar fermenting.
Vats of pepper pulp and vinegar fermenting.
Rick with his favorite one
Rick with his favorite one
Certified sign from the Queen
Certified sign from the Queen
Spanish moss in the Southern oaks
Spanish moss in the Southern oaks
Gators on the bank
Gators on the bank
It's just a baby gator
It’s just a baby gator
Azaelas in bloom
Azaelas in bloom
Double beauty
Double beauty
Heading down the
Heading down the
Buddha in the garden
Buddha in the garden
Purloined Buddha in its pagoda
Purloined Buddha in its pagoda
Doing limbo under the oak tree
Doing limbo under the oak tree
Pink camelia
Pink camelia
More cameilas
More cameilas
Rick versus Massurat the gator
Rick versus Massurat the gator
Lizard chasing a moth
Lizard chasing a moth
Visit to the Acadian Village
Visit to the Acadian Village
Rich feeding the fish and turtles
Rich feeding the fish and turtles
Two big kids feeding the fish and turtles.
Two big kids feeding the fish and turtles.
Welcome to the Gator Cove
Welcome to the Gator Cove
Crawfish boil with Rich and Rick for dinner
Crawfish boil with Rich and Rick for dinner
Rick getting a lesson is twisting the tail
Rick getting a lesson is twisting the tail
Rich is the expert at getting to the meat of things
Rich is the expert at getting to the meat of things
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